I live in Illinois, USA and it is summer here right now. Contrary to last year the summer this time has been pretty hot with temperatures touching 90 F almost every day. So recently when we were discussing about the weather over lunch one of my friends told me that he would rather prefer the winter in Illinois as the summer is too hot for him. When he said that I almost fell of the chair, this guy comes from same state as I do from India, Tamil Nadu, which except for few cities is not exactly known for its cold weather.

I would have agreed with him if we were in Bay Area, California or in Florida where the winter indeed is more pleasant than the hot summers but Illinois, you got to be kidding me. The winter here to put it plainly is downright “depressing”. How great can the weather be when at 4:00 PM you reach home and it’s already dark? Winter in Illinois is lots of snow, very low temperatures, Ice/sleet formations on roads and parking lot most of the times. It means not going out, lots of cleaning snow from your cars, feeling lazy, eating a lot and jumping up and down in joy when the temperature is 30 F. Thanks but no thanks.

I practically hate the winter here. Even though the summer has been hot, I would take this anytime over the winters here. I come from Chennai where the idea of winter is 60-70 F and 90-100 F during the rest of the year so naturally I am more inclined towards Florida sort of weather, but it’s not like the locals love winters here either, they complain all the time about the winter and would rather prefer the hot weather.

So basically I disagree with him big time as worrying for my life driving at 20 miles/hour on snow is not my cup of tea. Anyways the summer is almost over and winter is around the corner and I think my friend will be one of the very few who will rejoice the prospect of the same. As for the rest of us it will be a hard to say good bye to summer.